M K E Development Corp

At the time when we bought the house(late 2009), the real estate market had swung back from the days of handing out loans to everyone, to approving loans for no one. We had a terrible closing experience due to the banks delaying each step of the process including the appraisal and asking for an amazing amount of documentation. During this process MKE was very hands on and involved in the process, rather than allowing the realtors to handle the situation. This lead to a lot of emotion being injected into the situation and made an already stressful process even worse. More than once, frustration boiled over and some unpleasentries were spoken between all parties. If the seller had stayed out of it and let the professionals handle things, it may not have gone smoother, but it could have been far less emotional. Once we purchased the house, which was billed as "high-end", with excellent ammenities and high-efficiency items, we discovered that the bones of the house were not as great as they could have been. Several items were obviously constructed in a hurried manner, leaving behind some quality. For instance, in the bathrooms, the walls were painted after the toilets were installed so that there are areas visable without paint on the walls behind the toilets; there is a 1/4"-3/8" gap between the baseboard and flooring throughout the house(looks as though the baseboard was installed before the flooring was slid under); in the basement multiple sewer line clean outs were concealed behind walls and had to be exposed. About 3 months after we moved in, the basement flooded. We at first assumed this was due to heavy rains and flooding in the region, but once we ripped out the carpet, walls, and otehr items in the basement, we found several holes in the basement floor. These weren't just pinholes, but openings all the way through the concrete to the soil below, about 1/2" to 1" in diameter. Since this was a total tear down and reno., these would have been exposed during construction and could have been closed. None of them were and many were hidden behind walls, under framing, or under carpeting. There was no way to see these during an inspection as they were covered. While we know the holes did not cause the flooding, they certainly did help it along. We incurred about $4,000 worth of damages(we performed all the repairs ourselves) as well as the inconvenience of having to rip apart our new "finished" home and remodel the basement. In November 2011 we again had water issues; this time on the first floor. We noticed some staining on the walls and floor and proceeded to open up a small area to inspect. Once we did this, it became apparent that this leak had been occurring for some time. We brought in several contractors to give us estimates for the repairs and all of them commented on how this was appalling; a 3 year old house had the water damage and rot of one constructed in the 1930's. It was plain to see that this leak had been occurring for a very long time, almost since construction was complete. The only reason it was not seen inside the house was because the vapor barrier in the wall was holding back the water! Each contractor we spoke with all told us it was a simple mistake that lead to this problem, and one that should not have been made in the first place. There was basically a gutter channelling water into the house. We incurred about $9,000 worth of damages this time(right around the holidays) and had to have the following work repaired or replaced due to water damage: -Exterior sheathing -Exterior and structural wall framing -Floor and wall insulation -Roofing -Subflooring -Finished flooring -Interior drywall -Exterior siding -Interior and exterior trim work The house we bought had all the bells and whistles included in it, but the nuts and bolts of the home were lacking. We're currently looking at almost every aspect of the house we can in order to prevent or find future problems before they occur. When we bought the house were would have given MKE a grade of B to B+, but after seeing how some of the work was perfored and how it has(or hasn't held up) I would say that a D- was deserved.